Mercenary Ops

It was once said that good artists copy, but great artists steal. If that’s the case, then the developers of Mercenary Ops are certainly good, not great, artists. If a game plays or looks great, that’s only one part of the equation. There is definite value in originality, story, and design. Mercenary Ops may be that litmus test for gamers. Those who want a game with excitement and action will enjoy it, while those looking for something new will find Mercenary Ops to be something else entirely.

If you’ve played Resident Evil 4, Mercenary Ops will seem like complete deja vu. The story of Mercenary Ops is that of Leo, a tough yet heroic mercenary, sent into a European village to battle a varied horde of vicious zombies. A quick Google search for ‘Resident Evil 4’ will bring up virtually the same synopsis. The story doesn’t get much deeper than this, but that isn’t necessarily a hindrance to the game.

The real action of the game is an on-rails first-person shooter, which may be a lot of gamer mumbo-jumbo to some. Leo moves automatically, leaving you to aim and shoot the zombies attacking you. You don’t need to worry about ducking or moving out of the way. Just shoot.

We call this one Tiny.

Interestingly, Mercenary Ops offers three different control modes, which actually vary the game in terms of mode of play and difficulty. The easy control mode uses your screen as a touch pad only. To shoot, simply tap where you want to aim. This makes headshots extremely easy and your accuracy pretty high. The medium difficulty control scheme divides your screen in two. One side moves your aim, while in the other you can tap to fire.

Unfortunately, the third mode, which you unlock once you’ve gotten a few levels in the game’s story mode, is nearly unusable. It uses tilt controls to move your gun and a tap-to-fire trigger. However, the tilt controls are twitchy and not at all smooth.

The game runs off of an in-game currency, earned by performing headshots or shooting coins you find scattered throughout the levels. These coins can be spent on new weapons or ammo. You’ll play the game with a standard pistol with infinite ammo, but any other weapons require purchased ammo. Of course, you can also pay for in-game currency to earn the big boom sticks.

Have you seen my baseball?

You’ll also need to pay to actually play the game. While the game is a free download, and a universal app, that only gets you the first level of the story mode. For an additional $1.99, you will get the rest of the story mode, the survival mode, and the ability to unlock the other control scheme. This additional purchase isn’t highly advertised, and the free download barely gives you a taste of the actual game.

The gameplay is, despite all its flaws, pretty amazing. The zombies are wild and out for blood. There is a pretty big cast of bad guys, each with their own traits and looks. Rarely do we see an on-rails shooter on the App Store that plays this well. The only thing missing is a cover mechanic. Since Leo moves on his own, you never know when you’ll move into a safe spot to reload or take a breather. With no cover mechanic, you may be out in a vulnerable spot with an empty clip.

Ultimately, Mercenary Ops is a very good shooter that rips off the ideas of a great shooter. We wish the developers had bothered to create a story, characters, and concept more their own, but we do thank them for proving that on-rails shooters can use the Unreal Engine 3 to great effect.

Connect with us

Latest Recommended Games

The fine folks at Milkbag games have released Sidewords. A fun little diversion of a word game that is the devil child of crosswords and scrabble. For each level in the game the grid must be completed to win the level — this means that each letter at the top and side must be used. And not just the top or side, but each word must be made up of letters from the top and side to create a grid. It’s a pain, but in the right kind of way. Even the simplest of the levels can be a head scratcher until you get used to the game. Well worth the $3 as a diversion while we wait for Milkbag to finally release Snow Siege.

We’d like to thank our sponsor for this week, Zap Zap Kindergarten Math.

It’s not always easy to tear your kids away from their tablets and make them do something edifying. Thankfully, Zap Zap Kindergarten Math relieves you of this task by turning mathematics into a fun touchscreen video game. Win win!

Aimed at children 3-6 years old, the app makes math fun by ‘gamifying’ it, turning simple mathematics problems into little challenges so that your pre-schooler can learn and play at the same time.

There are more than two dozen mini-games, split across three categories: Numbers, Shapes and Measurements, and Add and Subtract. According to the developer the difficulty of these puzzles is adaptive too, so kids of any ability can be both encouraged and challenged.

Mini Dayz has launched and it’s a pixelated 2.5D open world that’s as brutal as the desktop version. In this game, the player is dumped on shore with nothing. They must scavenge around for food, water, and weapons while avoiding attack. It’s the kind of game where the goal is to stay alive as long as possible. But that will never be very long. It’s oddly free and seems to only have an ad on the main screen — for now.

Pewter Games has brought their charming point and click adventure The Little Acre to iOS. It’s an amazingly beautiful animated adventure set in a sort of hybrid magical / alien world. A great all ages adventure and very fun.

We’d like to thank our sponsor for this week, The House of Da Vinci by Blue Brain Games. There’s a reason Leonardo Da Vinci is the only renaissance figure who routinely shows up in video games you know. With his remarkable inventiveness and genius for creative problem-solving, Da Vinci was a gamer through and through. He was just born 500 hundred years too soon. Thankfully, there are studios like Blue Brain Games to bring him to life in videogame form. The House of Da Vinci, which comes to us courtesy of a hugely successful Kickstarter campaign, is a puzzler that seeks to channel the artistry and innovation of its title character.

You play as one of Da Vinci’s more promising apprentices, and you have the challenging task of trying to work out where the hell he’s gone. Was he assassinated by the church? Who knows. Has he quietly gone into a retirement? Perhaps. Did he accidentally invent a shrink ray and shrink himself down to the size of an dustmite? Probably not. Da Vinci’s workshop looks beautiful, thanks to some impressive 3D graphics, and the in-game environment is crammed with all the elaborate machines and crazy inventions you’d expect to find in the workplace of a renaissance genius.(more…)

Poly Bridge is out now on iOS, and it’s good to have it! It’s a great game and many seem to agree that it’s the best bridge builder game available. But the iOS versions, so far, is missing the sandbox mode. I would hope that it’s coming soon in an update. If you are all interested in physics puzzlers, grab this one. (Note: the video is for the PC version, I have yet to see a trailer for the mobile version, the developer Dry Cactus isn’t that great at marketing…)

Advertisement

Apple, the Apple logo, Apple Watch, iPad, iPhone, and Apple TV are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. App Store is a service mark of Apple Inc. Other terms may be trademarks of their respective companies.